A tale of two elections, or how populism wins

Iran went to the polls in 2005 with a very different perspective to the previous elections. The reformist government despite two consecutive strong wins (about 70% of all votes) in presidential elections and the last parliamentary election, during his eight years in power had failed to carry out all policies and social reforms previously promised. Although the government's progress in international relations and its new long-term economic outlook was healing the ailing economy of the country and carrying Iran away from the international isolation, but this was not reflected in the daily lives of citizens who were seeking personal liberties and freedom of expression. The reformists were losing the battle against the fundamentalists in the battle ground they had promised more victories. This issue caused a huge frustration among voters, most of them young Iranians. This dissatisfaction along with the propaganda carried out by the media of the opposition from abroad, which helped abstention, caused the majority of middle-class Iranian reformist not present at the polls. Moreover, the class of society with low incomes had lost confidence in those who had spent several years in senior political positions, during whom tenure had only increased the distance between different layers of society.

It was in this situation that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an unfamiliar face at the level of national politics, with populist slogans such as equality and improvement in the situation of the poorer classes of society, raised the famous populist flag of war against the rich and imperialism at national and international level and soon gathered a large group of voters. While the fundamentalists and conservative who were well aware that another reformist mandate will try to carry out even deeper reforms, helped Ahmadinejad's populist campaign and concentrated all their help and propaganda on the former Mayor of Tabriz to make his way into the presidential house, and everything happened as planned.

Although many critics speak of election fraud in the 2005 elections, it was unlikely a chance of major changes in favor of Ahmadinejad, as the recount of the election was carried out by the administration of reformist President, Khatami.

Four years later, in 2009, the economic strategies of President Ahmadinejad had left their influences, the economic situation had worsened. The rate of increase of inflation was causing more and more middle-class families going under the poverty line. Iran was more isolated than ever because the international society had increased the level of international sanctions against Ahmadinejad's nuclear policies. The banking system and the market increasingly lost contact with international investors. The human rights situation had deteriorated tragically and student movements were suppressed. The populist government had made its impact. It was under these circumstances that Ahmadinejad gradually lost his voters.

While the reformists who had realized the damage that abstention in past elections had caused, supported the two reformist candidates, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. In addition Mir-Hossein Mousavi who was the first Prime Minister of Iran, was enjoying an excellent reputation among the middle class. The NGO's official statistics showed the victory of Mir-Hossein Mousavi. But the results of a recount full of irregularities, announced that Ahmadinejad was reelected with about 62% of the votes in the first round of elections.

This result was never accepted neither by reformist candidates nor by most of the population of great iranian cities. The next day the streets of Tehran witnessed large demonstrations of near 4 million reformists and repression by the government which for months tried to control the situation with an iron fist and paramilitary groups like the Revolutionary Guard and Basij.

Ahmadinejad had never had the support of intellectuals, nor the university, this time also lost its popular base. But the situation worsened when the president began to shift away from traditional religious party and fundamentalists who had supported him in elections. As a result the government lost the confidence of the Supreme Leader, Guardians of the Revolution and the fundamentalist Parliament. Though, Iran's current government has become an entity that is not only unable to execute its plans, but is endangering the future of a country and a generation.

Editor-in-chief

Touraj Jafarieh, co-founder of Open Society, is a journalist specialized in multimedia communications, with extensive experience on blogs, social networks and web journalism. He has several years of experience, working with newspapers, news agencies, radio and television. Lately he has been focusing on "The phenomenon of blogging and freedom of expression: The paradigmatic case of Iran".

Education

Ph.D. in Spanish Language and its Literatures, M.Sc. in Professional Multimedia Journalism, M.A. in Contemporary Literature, all at Complutense University of Madrid, B.A. in Spanish Philology at Allameh Tabatabai University of Tehran

Languages

English, Spanish, French, Persian

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Follow Us

Get Published

+ Archives

Legal Note

opensocietyoline.com includes links to both internal and external websites which are selected to be editorially relevant to the content they are linking from. Open Society Online cannot be held responsible for the content of external links, third party content that is published on the website or cited references.